CALIFORNIA—The California State Water Resource Control Board on February 1 voted to extend the water conservation rules till the month of September despite heavy rain storms causing landslides in the state.
According to Max Gomberg, the board’s Head of Climate and Conservation Committee, the state’s drought regulations are still kept in place as the residents could fall back on old habits if the regulations are lifted. According to reports of Record Searchlight, roughly 80 percent of California districts have enough water supplies and are no longer concerned with the need to cut back on water conservation.
Drought regulations were enforced in 2014 by Governor Jerry Brown who ordered the water board to make conservation rules preventing residents from watering their lawn within 48 hours of rainfall, cleaning vehicles without hose shutoff nozzles and restaurants were barred from serving water unless requested by the customer. In a first mandate of its kind in the state, Brown later ordered more than 40 million people of California’s population to cut water use by 25 percent.
Senator Jim Nelson in a letter, signed by other officials to the governor called for an end to drought regulations citing drastic climate changes in the state.
The rain total in downtown Los Angeles since October 2016 has reached 15.5 inches which far exceeds the normal annual rainfall in the region.
